This invention relates to innovations in the material and technology of semimagnetic semiconductor lasers.
Semiconductor lasers are known employing Group III-V and IV-VI materials. These known lasers operate in wavelength ranges 0.8-2 .mu.m and 4-30 .mu.m leaving a gap in the 2-4 .mu.m range. Group II-VI semiconductor lasers could fill the need to extend optical communication and other optical systems farther into the infrared and visible regions of the spectrum. Semiconductor lasers require very high current densities to initiate and maintain stimulated emissions. The series resistance of the junctions in semiconductor lasers must therefore be kept very low to avoid dissipating excessive heat at the high current densities. Because the base or substrate in a semiconductor laser is much thicker than the active layer, this region accounts for most of the resistance. Thus, in order to keep the series resistance low, the resistance of the substrate must be reduced while maintaining the appropriate energy band gap with respect to the active layer.